France and Germany have had higher taxes for ever and both are countries where things actually work. They have thousands of miles of motorways and high-speed rail, far more than we do, the result of years and years of regular public investment. We can’t even link two cities with HS2 as we are about to discover when Sunak cuts the project back even further. I'll be amazed if it ever gets finished.
The objects of her ire, the ‘political class’ in her piece’s title, are former BoE governor Mark Carney, Kier Starmer, and the PM Rishi Sunak.
Carney is blamed for Britain’s stuttering growth during his tenure between 2013-20 and for suggesting in a recent speech that Truss’ plans to slash taxes and spending led to Britain becoming Argentina on the Channel rather than Singapore on Thames. Carney had the temerity to speak the truth when he also criticised “far-Right populists” and Brexiteers for having a “basic misunderstanding of what drives economies”
He said they had a “misguided view” that reducing taxes and government spending leads to economic growth and accused Brexiteers of wanting to “tear down the future”.
What Carney was criticising was Truss' (and Tominey's) central and one might suggest only policy plank. They think all you need to do is cut taxes as far as you can and keep reducing government spending to the bare minimum to trigger growth because it worked before. Brexiteers apparently only want to “recreate the past, pre-Carney world of economic growth.”
Tominey is wrong. We tried to cut public investment partly by privatising utility services and this has proved to be a disaster. you only have to look at the water, power, and rail industries to see that. Things are far more expensive now and don't work as well.
What water and power privatisations taught us is that consumers are willing to pay more but past governments simply couldn't make the case well enough. So now these private companies have jacked up the prices, provided inferior services, creamed off the profits, and sent them back to their private equity owners abroad. For consumers here, it's a lose-lose.
If Brexit has indeed turned Britain into a European country, this is to be welcomed.
Tominey talks of 'respecting' the result of the referendum as if nobody has changed their mind over the last seven years. If we held another vote, it's pretty clear that Leave would lose badly.
She also focuses on divergence and is appalled about Starmer's pledge to make Brexit work by aligning in some areas:
"Perhaps the most troubling aspect of [Starmer's] pledge to improve relations with Brussels by sticking to the bloc’s standards is that we might not even notice. Despite Boris Johnson’s 'take back control' promises, his government and subsequent administrations have done little to diverge from the EU."
Rishi Sunak and his government have got themselves into an impossible position by selling Brexit as an opportunity to diverge from EU rules but then belatedly realising that doing so will only damage the economy, exactly as remainers forecast in 2016. Tominey is just the latest Brexiteer who can’t understand this simple truth.
It occurs to me that the loudest voices calling for divergence are invariably either journalists or politicians. The wealth creators in our manufacturing and service industries who earn the foreign exchange that allows us to buy the imports we need don’t want to diverge from EU standards. They know it makes no sense.
Here’s a thought experiment. What if Tominey was forced to file her copy in German or Finnish as well as English. Would she be happy? You can bet she wouldn’t, but she wants something not far removed for our manufacturers.
I bet she wants to speak English wherever she travels in Europe and by and large, she can because people in EU member states have voluntarily accepted a standard language, and Tominey finds that convenient and efficient, which of course it is. But she is upset that exporters prefer the same thing when it comes to product standards.
It is this immutable fact that prevents UK prime ministers from shifting too far from Brussels and more importantly, it will always be true. Once you realise this the whole basis for Brexit collapses. If you are going to continue to follow EU rules, why not help to make them better for yourself?
Admitting as much would destroy the Tory party since the bizarre belief that having different rules from your major export market will bring trade success is now a matter of faith.
Finally, my attention was drawn to a report in The i newspaper about two British ex-pats living in Spain who voted for Brexit and are "pleased with what we did."
And listen to this: "When the vote happened [Remainers] wanted to kill us. But we are in the minority, the educated elite who voted for Brexit. We had the last laugh."
"We were very aware of putting our country first, unlike people here who were worried about how it would affect them. We were concerned with the sovereignty of the UK.”
“I am quite pleased that we did what we did. We will have the last laugh when Europe falls apart.”
They apparently are resident with their families in Spain so the 90/180-day rule doesn't affect them, as far as Europe falling apart, I’m not sure how often they get back to the UK but if he thinks Europe is deteriorating he’ll be shocked by what’s happening here, schools and hospitals are literally crumbling and the country feels completely broken.
Spain is so bad they have chosen to live there. Really, how stupid and selfish can you get?
Finally, finally, congratulations to all who attended the March to Rejoin in London yesterday. I didn't go myself since I'm not sure I could have managed it but I was there in spirit. What a pity the BBC chose not to cover it.
